Stetson players report

DELAND -- There's been a lot of talk for the last 16 months about Stetson bringing back football.

On Monday, coach Roger Hughes and the Hatters officially got the players to fill out the team's roster.

More than 100 hopeful Hats strolled into the Edmunds Center at one time or another to check in with coaches. It was the first time in 56 years that Stetson students reported to football camp.

Former DeLand Bulldog Nick Franzese, one of seven Volusia County high school products in camp, said he's been anxiously waiting for the day when he'd join other Hatters on the gridiron.

"I heard people talking about Stetson having a football team again, the first time since 1956, and I thought it would be great to be part of history all over again," Franzese said, explaining how he first got interested in being a Hatter.

"I cannot wait for practice," the freshman linebacker said, his eyes widening as if he was about to sack a quarterback.

Franzese and the rest of the Hatters don't have to wait much longer, because they're scheduled to be on the field for their first practice at 9 tonight. The practice field closest to Amelia Avenue is lined and ready for football players and coaches, even if it doesn't yet have goal posts.

Workers were busy Monday putting finishing touches on the new 25,000-square-foot field house that will be home to more than 200 student-athletes in three sports: football, lacrosse and soccer.

Hughes and company were busy with final preparations for the team.

"The shoulder pads were delivered this morning," Hughes said as he sat in his soon-to-be former office, a small cubicle in the basement of the Edmunds Center.

When someone suggested Hughes and other coaches autograph a football helmet as a piece of memorabilia to display on campus, Hughes nodded in agreement, smiled and added, "But first we have to be sure we have enough helmets for the players."

Yes, the players. There are 108 of them, as of Monday, and Hughes expects to have 10 to 15 more after students arrive on campus to begin classes. All but two are freshmen.

"One of the great things about our jobs as coaches is we get to see them come in as puppies, and in four or five years go out as young men," said the coach who last guided Princeton for a 10-year stint (2000-09).

Stetson already has been accepted as a member of the Pioneer Football League, a non-scholarship Football Championship Subdivision conference. The Hatters won't play any games this season. The team will have many practices and several scrimmages as it works up to a planned Aug. 31, 2013 opener. (Specifics on the game have not yet been announced.)

Having a season to practice, get players acclimated to an academic environment while playing a sport, and even getting other areas of campus accustomed to having a football team around -- ever try to feed 130 hungry football players and coaches? -- are all benefits of starting now, Hughes said.

It also gives Stetson a chance to get the kinks out. "When we were recruiting, we told them they would have to have a sense of humor, because when you walk on the practice field and there aren't any goal posts you're just going to have to go with it," Hughes said with a smile. "We all need to maintain a sense of humor."

Soon, Hughes and the other Hatter coaches will be moving in the field house with all the comforts. Monday afternoon the school got a certificate of occupancy for the first-floor locker areas so players could start moving in with their football equipment.

It won't be long before these Hatters and others get to use the huge building that faces Amelia Avenue and two football fields on one side and two soccer/lacrosse fields on the other.

"I haven't been inside (the field house) yet, but from the outside it definitely says we're Division I," running back Patrick Cone said.